Blaqk Audio: Material

Vinyl LP pressing. Material is the 2016 album from Davey Havok and Jade Puget’s electronic alter ego, Blaqk Audio. Produced and recorded by Puget, Material is Blaqk Audio’s third release following 2012’s Bright Black Heaven and 2007’s Cexcells. Though best known for their work with multi-platinum rock band AFI, Havok and Puget’s shared love of electronic music runs deep. Havok, who counts Devo’s Freedom of Choice and Duran Duran’s self-titled debut among the first albums he owned, saw his tastes evolve over the years from the synth pop of Erasure and Pet Shop Boys to Depeche Mode and ultimately to the heavier, darker Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front 242 and Lords of Acid. Later, Havok immersed himself in the “futurepop” genre, which combined dark dance-y electronica with melodic vocals. From roughly 1999 to 2003, his contemporary musical diet consisted almost exclusively of artists falling under the industrial/EDM/futurepop/bigbeat/trance umbrella.